Dole has been elected as one of the 2007 World's Most Ethical Companies
Ethisphere Magazine recognizes and rewards ethical leadership and business practices worldwide.
The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each forces other companies to follow its leadership or fall behind. Each uses ethical leadership as a profit driver.
Ethics are absolute. Business ethics are relational. And ethical leadership requires a position of influence.
What does that mean? Certainly there are absolutes to business ethics, such as respecting employees and stakeholders, competing fairly and within the law, and being a responsible corporate citizen.
Companies routinely compete for recognition for their “corporate citizenship” or “best place to work” award. And predictably, a select few pharmaceutical companies, a handful of consulting and high-tech firms, and a couple of retailers appear near the top of the list.
The absolutes are the necessary grounding for a company to have strong core values to build upon. The context is the environment in which a company operates, both geographically as well as industrially.
The best lens through which to view a company’s ethical leadership behavior is to examine a company compared to other companies in the same industry. Are they leading, are they following, or are they ignoring? And to be a leader, the company needs to have or build a competitive edge, such as size or technology, which allows it to be influential.
In assembling the 2007 rankings of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, the researchers and editors of Ethisphere examined more than 5,000 companies across 30 separate industries looking for true ethical leadership.
We looked for absolutes. We examined companies in relational context of their industries. And we looked for influential leadership that moved others to change or follow.
Companies were measured in a rigorous eight-step process and then scored against nine distinct ethical leadership criteria.
Ethics are absolute. Business ethics are relational. And ethical leadership requires a position of influence.
What does that mean? Certainly there are absolutes to business ethics, such as respecting employees and stakeholders, competing fairly and within the law, and being a responsible corporate citizen.
Companies routinely compete for recognition for their “corporate citizenship” or “best place to work” award. And predictably, a select few pharmaceutical companies, a handful of consulting and high-tech firms, and a couple of retailers appear near the top of the list.
The absolutes are the necessary grounding for a company to have strong core values to build upon. The context is the environment in which a company operates, both geographically as well as industrially.
The best lens through which to view a company’s ethical leadership behavior is to examine a company compared to other companies in the same industry. Are they leading, are they following, or are they ignoring? And to be a leader, the company needs to have or build a competitive edge, such as size or technology, which allows it to be influential.
In assembling the 2007 rankings of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, the researchers and editors of Ethisphere examined more than 5,000 companies across 30 separate industries looking for true ethical leadership.
We looked for absolutes. We examined companies in relational context of their industries. And we looked for influential leadership that moved others to change or follow.
Companies were measured in a rigorous eight-step process and then scored against nine distinct ethical leadership criteria.
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Dole was the only one Fresh Fruit, Vegetables and Flowers company ranked by Ethisphere Magazine.
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As part of the 2007 Word’s Most Ethical Companies analysis, Ethisphere Council researchers interviewed dozens and dozens of companies in great depth about their compliance and ethics activities. This included talking to “both” CEOs (the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Ethics Officer) in most cases. Following are some excerpts and reports from selected companies that we found particularly worth highlighting.
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The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each of these companies has materially higher scores versus competitors in their industries. Each forces other companies to follow its leadership or fall behind. Each uses ethical leadership as a profit driver. And each of these companies embodies the true spirit of Ethisphere’s credo: Good. Smart. Business. Profit.
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View the complete article at: http://www.ethisphere.com/Ethisphere_Magazine_0207/WME-2007-Q2
